In love with God?

I honestly can’t tell if this song is supposed to have a religious meaning or a romantic one. (Fans of Christian music, please hear me when I say, we’re not kidding when we say a lot of it sounds like people who want to make out with God. Major ick, though I guess not inconsistent with a religion that kicked off when God supposedly impregnated a lady.) Anyway, maybe you can help me figure it out. Ladies and gentlemen, Jamie Grace’s “Hold Me”:

On the one hand, it sounds like any other unobtrusive, cute pop song I’d hear on the radio. Phrases like “I know I should be working but I’m thinking of you,” “forever in my heart, always on my mind,” and of course “I love the way you hold me” are equally at home on a top-40 station as they apparently are on one of my local Christian stations.

On the other hand, Jamie Grace is “an American Contemporary Christian musician, singer, rapper, songwriter, and actress” and her song was playing on one of my local Christian stations, which means the song must have been deemed “family-friendly.” Obviously you can be a Christian songwriter and write songs about whatever you want … but judging by the content of these radio stations, the way to be “family-friendly” is to sing about God and Jesus and how great they are (how great he is?), and nothing else. If this song isn’t about God, it would be a first in my experience.

Back on the first hand, though, the song has almost zero religious language in it. There’s one line that goes, “Lord, I love the way you hold me,” but that could just be an exclamation.

On the other hand again, the music video is full of lens flare and Jamie Grace looking out over scenic vistas, which seems pretty God-tacular. She’s playing her guitar in the back seat of a Jeep that has two guys in the front, but they only look at each other occasionally. There’s no obvious affection between any of them. There’s certainly no physical holding of any kind going on in the video.

Plus, it seems Jamie Grace also did the song God Girl [link to video] in which she addresses God with a similar got-a-crush tone, saying “I’m your girl” — by way of explaining that she isn’t interested in dating any boys right now (and, amusingly, that she wants all her “Facebook friends and foes” to know that she worships God).

So I guess I’m talking myself into a religious interpretation here. But I could be convinced otherwise.

6 Comments

You’re totally not alone. There are many within Christianity who don’t like the “Jesus is my boyfriend” vibe found in many songs (me, I’d be one of them [smile]).

On the other hand, Scripture is full of references about how the church is the Bride of Christ, and how our wanderings from Him are like adultery… so there is something to be said for the passion and emotion behind this love.

A quick thought for both of you (and anyone else who wants to chime in on the conversation): If I claimed to be in a romantic relationship with a celebrity, everyone would think I was crazy. They don’t even know me, I’ve never met them, I’m delusional, etc. etc. And in the case of a celebrity we all have obvious, concrete evidence that the celebrity actually exists. How much stranger, then, when people talk about their belief in an incorporeal, other-dimensional mysterious being that they can’t provide any evidence for the existence of — and then also say that they’re in a personal relationship with that being (romantic or otherwise)!

This sexualization of the God-person relationship makes me think of the flip-side of that coin: the latest trend among evangelicals regarding the proper attitude among men, namely the manly, burly, lumberjack, football crazy attitude to Christianity.

I actually clicked on the video before reading your post. I had never heard of the singer. I is a cute pop song but I did not hear the religious stuff.

But I could easily see how it was intended to get a double impact meaning for her market.

Further, cashing in on sexual attraction part of the brain for one’s god and all the oxytocin that goes with that is a very good technique to remain a believer. Why do men stay with women if it weren’t for the oxytocin kick? Smile.
Half-serious , well, maybe 13/16th serious !

Quotable

“I contend we are both atheists, I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.”— Stephen F. Roberts